Work began in August 1990, with replacement of some foundation timbers. Along the way, rotted clapboards on two sides of the historic structure were replaced, the interior trim was repainted and wall plaster repaired, a new roof of cedar shingles was added and a new lawn planted.

In December 1993, the building itself was hoisted by crane to a new site 50 feet or so from where it stood, just a few feet from the traffic of winding Burrows Hill Road.

Henrietta Green, one of the driving forces behind the restoration, said the whole process required more than $23,000.

``I would just like the children who are coming along to see it, just so they can get a feeling of what it was like back then,'' said Green, a retired teacher who began her career in 1930 at the one-room Gull School in Amston. ``The advantage to a one-room school was that you had the whole family,'' she said. ``I think the teachers were a whole lot closer to the children and the families back then.''

In the early 1970s, a plaque with the date 1725 was hung above the door to the old schoolhouse, but it was removed during the final phase of restoration. Kathy Sarnoski, president of the historical society, said the plaque reflected a hopeful, but dubious assumption based on town records that showed there were 30 children living in the area by that colonial-era date -- enough to justify a school.

The society has backed away from that uncertain date, in part because of an analysis done last year by John Obed Curtis, former head curator of Old Sturbridge Village. Curtis said an array of architectural features argued for a construction date between 1790 and 1810.

For instance, Curtis said, fireplaces were the only available heat source for buildings in the 1720s. The Burrows Hill Schoolhouse has no fireplace, but does have a cast-iron stove -- something more typical of the late-18th century.

In addition, the arched plaster ceiling and the type of nails used in construction argue for the later date.

``We've sort of settled on a mid-1700s date,'' Sarnoski said.

Until about 1911, the building served as a schoolhouse for the town center, standing near a cotton mill, an ax factory and a gunsmith's shop.

Inside the schoolhouse, 10 rough-hewn pupils' desks, some bearing carved initials from the distant past, stand before a lectern-style teacher's desk dating from the mid-19th century. The white plaster is highlighted by slate-blue trim, and the blackboard bears the faded ``Three Rules for Reading,'' put there by a past teacher.

Green, who is 85, said her younger brother, Benjamin Staba, restored the desks and attached them firmly to the floor. She and some other volunteers scrubbed the wide-plank floor, and Harry Armstrong applied a finishing coat of linseed oil and turpentine.